Hobonichi 2022 Diary Unboxing

It's become a yearly tradition now for me to share the unboxing of my Hobonichi Diary for the next year -- and seeing as it's Spring, to do it outside on the grass!

I was very excited when I received my order! Unfortunately though, I have to report that I was pretty disappointed by the state it was in when it arrived. Usually the iconic Hobonichi box is enclosed in a paper bag, which keeps it safe while it travels from Japan. I (and I'm sure many others) like to keep the box to store stationery and other items in. This year though, the bag was dispensed with and the box was sent 'nude'. As you can see from the photos, it's covered in courier stickers and is very scuffed and a little crushed on the bottom.

The box such a gorgeous pink colour that I was particularly disappointed I won't be able to use it, and it's essentially 'just packaging' -- only fit for the bin now. But let's move away from the melodrama and see what's inside! As always, there is a quote on the inside flap of the box, and it's quite a nice one:

The first peek inside reveals the pencil board from the 'Standard Set' I ordered -- more on that later.

Underneath were the covers I ordered, and underneath that, some of the accessories. The Scary Bear spoon is one of this year's free items.

As always I ordered the Hobonichi Cousin, the A5 size book. I also got two covers, because I have a book from a couple of years ago that's still lacking a cover. The covers I chose were the plain colour in Lemon Squash yellow, and the "Shall We Have Some Tea?" Retro Cafe design.

I did a bit of a mix-and-match -- I ordered the Standard Set, which comes with the Hobonichi book, a plain cover (for me the Lemon Squash yellow), a clear cover-on-cover, and a pencil board. I plan to put the plain cover-on-cover over the Retro Cafe cover, and the Lemon Squash cover will serve as the base for the Season of Hope cover-on-cover that you can see below. I just can't decide which will go on my new Hobonichi and which will cover the old one!

As for the accessories, I purchased the matching folders for the "Shall We Have Some Tea?" set in both A5 and A6 size. To be honest, I don't have any particular plans for them, but I just love the designs so much that I couldn't help myself.

Here is the 2022 book with this year's free items: the usual tri-pen and the Scary Bear spoon. I just adore the colour of the pen barrel!

It again came with a fold-out booklet with information about the Hobonichi. It's a little smaller than in previous years, but it has a lovely illustration of cats in a park on the back, which I think I might even frame.

I got these animal stencils for no particular reason. They were reasonably priced, and I liked all of them, so I decided to get all four.

Likewise with these Pentel brush touch pens. I've seen other journallers use them in their Hobos without any bleed-through problems, so I indulged.

Lastly I purchased a few washi tapes. There is a larger range available in the Hobonichi store than there used to be, and more choice means more temptations! I couldn't help but get the matching washi tape from the "Shall We Have Some Tea?" range, as well as a few geometric edge-cut ones, which are a bit more unusual.

Aside from the disappointment with the box, which I'll admit was probably just due to high expectations, I'm very happy with my order. In fact, this was the first time there has been enough afordable choices in the A5 cover range that I had trouble deciding! It's a nice problem to have.

2021 Hobonichi Diary Unboxing

Normally I make this yearly post in September each year, when the Hobonichi diaries for the next year go on sale. The Hobonichi company have an order holding service, so this year, with the turbulence in the mail delivery system, I kept my order on hold for as long as I possibly could. After that, it arrived very fast, as it came by courier. 

I'll just show the unboxing photos without too much commentary, as I didn't order very many interesting things this year. 

The Etsy shop I bought my covers from last year was no longer open, sadly, but thankfully Hobonichi were offering one cover I really loved (both outside and inside!). It's by Aki Kondo, the same artist who invented Rilakkuma! 

 

I also ordered these cute Astroboy pencil boards for myself and Husband. They have a holographic effect!

This year's fold-out has a guide to uses for the Hobonichi with lots of ideas! It's in English as well as Japanese for the first time, though now I have a translation app on my phone I could read it. It's amazing to think that didn't exist a few years ago!

Here is the page I did in this year's Hobonichi to celebrate the arrival of next years', and also the backlog of stationery packs from my Rainbowholic Patreon subscription. They were being held until the post could get through again, and I received 5 months' worth at once! I felt like a (stationery) queen!

Hobonichi 2020 Unboxing, Part 1

(Gosh, it felt strange to write '2020' instead of '201-something' in the title!)

This is Part 1 of a 2-part post. Because of the huge amount of photospams, I decided to break this post up into two. Don't worry though, I'll be posting both at the same time so you don't have to wait! Part 1 covers my purchase from the Hobonichi shop of the journal itself and accessories. Part 2 describes my experience with purchasing custom covers for my journals, and a comparison with the Hobonichi brand covers.

Once again, I purchased Hobonichi's Techo (journal) for next year. It seems to have become a yearly tradition for me. While I don't always fill out my diary entry every day, I always have my diary near me, and I use it for various other purposes as well. As per last year, the product onsales were staggered over a 3 day period, but all of the products I wanted went on sale on the first day, so I didn't have to bother myself with placing a hold on my order.

Postage time from Japan was about ten days, plus a couple of extra days until I was able to go to the post office and pick it up (always an impatient wait!). This year's box is a stunning lime green colour. The first couple of years I cut up my boxes to use the cardboard for displays, etc, but I think I'll keep this one to store things in. (My previous Hobos, for example?)

This year, the traditional quote on the box says:

Once, words were engraved in stones.
Once, words were exchanged from mouth to mouth.
I guess people could not help it,
because they were so precious.
We all want to keep words alive.

As per normal, everything inside was packed well.

The free gifts were the usual tri-pen, this time with a red barrel, and a pack of Hyakunin-isshu ("100 poets 100 poems") playing cards. The cards are illustrated by manga artist Radio Wada. Unfortunately I can't play the game as I can't read Japanese and the only poems I know are a small selection of haiku, but the cards themselves set my witchy heart a-fluttering. Can I turn them into a divination tool?

The Techo also came with a fold-out mini poster with a graphic story on it, which I also unfortunately can't read, but the illustrations are adorable and I will keep it as a memento. There was also a lovely card with a link to this website, which seems at first glance to be stories of Hobonichi users. Thank goodness for goog translate because otherwise I'd have no clue of anything whatsoever. I'll have a better look later after I've finished sharing my Hobonichi excitement!

Here are the accessories I purchased. I didn't get too much this year because of my circumstances, but I did get some sticky notes, washi tapes and stencils, plus the adorable Hobo rubber stamp. The two washi tapes are based on traditional Japanese lottery/divination systems so of course I had to get them.

Here is a better look at the stencils. They are much smaller than I thought they'd be. I think I'd need a fineliner to use them properly, but I'll experiment.

See here for Part 2, in which I review my custom covers purchase and compare them to Hobonichi brand covers!

Madfest Anime Festival 2018 and Haul

About a month ago, I went to the Madfest Anime Festival. I have attended every year since it began in 2016. In the previous two years, it was held in mid-November, but this year it was moved to mid-September. I think there are pluses and minuses to this timing. It's not too close to other festivals that happen in November, such as PAX and Supanova. On the other hand, the weather isn't as likely to be good. The day I went was dull, grey and rainy -- not very good conditions for cosplay photography! I did see a couple of people braving the rain to take photos, but I did feel a bit sorry for them.

The lineup featured all of the usual: community performances, celebrity appearances and signings, merch booths, creators' corner, and movie premieres (for an additional ticket price). Last year I wanted to build up my plushie collection, but this year I was mainly interested in stickers and crafty things. These things are found in the creators' corner and this year it was huge! All of the little yellow squares on the map below are creator stalls. I was determined to see them all, but I felt like I spent most of my time in that section! However, it was really great to see so many makers getting the opportunity to share their creations.

This year the festival was held in a smaller space -- and it made a big difference. The moment we walked in the door, we were hit with a wall of people and it was quite daunting. There was a much smaller space to sit and only a couple of food stations compared to the spacious area and large selection of food stalls last year. That was a little disappointing. The creators' corner area, too, was very crowded. It took a long time to squeeze through all the people to see each stall. There were some that I wanted to buy products from, but I gave up because of the wall of people in front of them.

I'm not good with crowds, and I needed to take regular breaks after every couple of aisles to reground myself. I'm familiar with the noisy and frenetic atmosphere of conventions, and I was prepared for it, but I still found it overwhelming. I started to get a feeling, too, that I was just there to buy stuff. However, I did enjoy looking at the cosplay costumes, the displays, and being with a group of people who have the same interest as me.

Having said all that, now for the haul! Links to the creators' Instagrams are included where possible (You don't need the Instagram app to view them, links are to a browser version of Instagram.)

https://www.instagram.com/kokoscope/
https://www.instagram.com/zombeevee/

https://www.instagram.com/artofkatieelle/

https://www.instagram.com/missaree/
https://www.instagram.com/asongofbeads/
https://www.instagram.com/milkymanastore/

https://www.instagram.com/trinketsbyblu/

https://www.instagram.com/chelsea_megs_tcc/

https://www.instagram.com/artofaliss/

Hobonichi Art Diary 2019 Unboxing

Just like I did last year, I purchased the yearly art diary from Hobonichi. The diaries went on sale on 1st September as they always do, but this year the sales system was different. Hobonichis have become much more popular in the last few years, and the company have had problems with their website crashing, so they divided up the sale over 3 days. Certain products in their range went on sale on different days, and customers had the option to hold their order until the end to enable them to buy everything they wanted and have it sent in one parcel.

I was a little intimidated by this system when I first heard about it, but there was ample information about how it worked (in written, video and manga form!), and it all went very smoothly. I have to commend Hobonichi for this. But let's get on to the unboxing! Get ready for lots of photos! (P.S. Stay tuned for a slightly disconcerting surprise at the end!)

This year the items came in an amazing bright orange-coloured box with a graphic pattern on it.

The quote says:

Don't ever lose hope. It's far too important.
You know how a pinch of salt
changes the whole flavor of a dish?
Your hope is that salt.

This year I decided to buy more than just the book itself. Previously I'd thought to make my own covers, but after 3 years this still hasn't happened! A couple of Etsy sellers are making nice covers, but they weren't any more cost effective than the official Hobonichi ones, so I decided to go straight to the source. I also got a few washi tapes and other things.

I purchased the Peach Sky cover with a Cover-on-Cover. The Cover-on-Cover is a clear plastic cover which slips on over the top of the standard cover, which is made from fabric, and protects it. There is a plain plastic cover, but I purchased the Forest Secrets print.

This years' free gifts were a multi-pen (the standard gift), this time in a beautiful cream colour, and a Not-Scary Bear paperweight. He looks a bit scary to me! But I think it's a reminder not to judge by appearances.

The book came with a cute poster which says "Happy Nothing Special Day!" I'll hang it up on my wall so I can see it when I'm getting ready for work in the mornings.

As I mentioned before, I want to purchase covers for my Hobonichis from now on, and that means my previous books from 2016 onwards, too. My first book was the A6 size, before I switched to A5 size. The shop had an adorable cat cover which I needed to have! The design is called "I Forgot When It Was, But I Sure Had Fun", designed by Ryoji Arai. I'm glad I purchased it, because it sold out on the first day!

I also purchased a couple of washi tapes, and some A6-sized plastic folders which I will use to hold planner stickers. The folders are designed by Nao Sakamoto and are really adorable! The Kitta stickers are decorated strips, and are a bit like a cross between stickers and washi tape.

Lastly ... the disconcerting surprise! Hobonichi have accidentally sent me a second book! It's the English language A6 planner, plus the free gifts that come with all books. I didn't order or pay for this! And I'm not sure what to do -- if I should contact them and try to return it, give it away or use it. What should I do?